Obituary: Ross Allmaras

Ross Allmaras

Ross Allmaras, age 26, originally of Carrington, N.D., died unexpectedly in his sleep on April 15, 2023, of an undetected heart arrhythmia while visiting at a friend's home.

Ross' visitation was Friday, April 21, from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m., with a Rosary Service at 6:45 p.m., followed by a Vigil Service at 7:00 p.m., all at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Carrington.

His Mass of Christian Burial was held Saturday, April 22, at 10:00 a.m., at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Carrington, with Father Terry Dodge officiating. Jennifer Hoornaert was pianist, Scott Beumer was soloist and the Sacred Heart Choir provided special music.

Honorary pallbearers were all of his family and close friends.

Ross was born on January 5, 1997, eleven minutes after his identical twin brother Ryan, in Bismarck, N.D., to parents Conni and Kevin Allmaras, joining older brother Eric. Ross loved being an older brother to Madeline, whom he tormented every chance he got.

In his early years, he enjoyed playing with Tonka trucks and Legos, setting him up for his future career in mechanical engineering. He helped work cattle at his grandpa's farm and considered the Central North Dakota Steam Threshers Reunion in New Rockford a holiday.

Ross attended school in Carrington, N.D., and graduated in 2015, where his classmates voted him "most likely to succeed." He enjoyed participating in a variety of activities alongside his brothers that allowed him to flex his creativity and love for science. He earned many medals in Science Olympiad, participated in One Act Play, Academic Pursuit, and speech team. His talent for impersonating foreign accents fooled many competitors who believed him to be a Russian foreign exchange student named Dimitri Polpov from Pripiat.

Throughout high school and summers during college, Ross and his brothers worked at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center. They learned the Nissan pickup could not traverse the gravel roads in a minute flat on the way to work like they thought, which earned them the nickname the "8:05 crew."

Ross and his brothers were active in the Boy Scouts of America beginning in Grade 1, and continued through high school, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout, Scouting's highest honor, earning over 40 merit badges. He spent many summers at Wilderness camp in Minnesota with his fellow scouts, participating in a wealth of shenanigans that they still laugh about.

Ross enjoyed spending summers at the family vacation home on Boot Lake, Minn. He learned to wakeboard, enjoyed sailing his pirate ship sailboat, playing games at the resort and fishing with his cousins. Once while night fishing, his line accidentally wrapped around a bat's wing. Ross's kind heart's first thought was to untangle the bat, thus introducing him to a series of rabies shots.

Ross was quick witted and excelled at making people laugh. Whether he was playing a cut-throat game of Risk or other board games, thinking of a movie quote for every situation, or just hanging out with his friends or fraternity brothers from Sigma Phi Delta, he was someone guaranteed to bring joy to the mix.

After high school, Ross attended NDSU in Fargo for one year, majoring in mechanical engineering. At the end of that year, he decided to be more hands on in the mechanical world and transferred to NDSCS in Wahpeton where he earned his Caterpillar Diesel mechanic degree. He worked for Butler Machinery in Dickinson for one year.

Ross decided that the designs of many things he worked on just weren't very practical, and perhaps he could do something about that. He returned to the Mechanical Engineering program at NDSU with a renewed focus in the fall of 2020.

Ross was selected to be a co-op intern at the Bobcat Acceleration Center in Bismarck that was to run from January through August of 2023. He was happy to bring his mechanical experience in to this new learning opportunity and was proud of the design work he was doing.

Ross is survived by his parents, his brother Eric (Jamestown), his twin brother Ryan (Fargo), his sister Madeline (Fargo) and his grandmother, Jean Allmaras (New Rockford).

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Wilfred and Nancy Fetch and Clemence Allmaras.

Arrangements by Evans Funeral Home, Carrington and New Rockford, N.D.